A Jewish Israeli journalist, Shlomi Eldar, tried to raise money for surgery in an Israeli hospital that would save the life of a Gazan Palestinian baby. Many Israelis responded with offers of donations, including one Jewish father who had lost his son in battle with the Palestinians, and offered to pay the entire cost of $55,000 on condition that he remain anonymous.

Eldar got to know the mother of the sick baby well. He saw “how intensely she fought for her son’s life … standing for hours, caressing him, warming him up, kissing him…. The whole time I accompanied her, I saw a caring mother who was at her baby’s bedside night and day. She didn’t eat, she lost weight and she cried. I myself saw to it that she ate. I saw her faint when she was informed there was a small chance her son would get well. …”

The baby, Mohammed, did not survive, and his death deeply grieved the mother. But while he was still alive and there was still hope for him, she, Raida Abu Mustafa, “launched into a painful monologue about the culture of the shahids – the martyrs – and admitted, during the complex transplant process, that she would like to see her son perpetrate a suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem.”

Eldar has made a documentary film of the story called Precious Life. In it, Raida says: “For us, death is a natural thing. We are not frightened of death. From the smallest infant, even smaller than Mohammed, to the oldest person, we will all sacrifice ourselves for the sake of Jerusalem. We feel we have the right to it. You’re free to be angry, so be angry.”

“Then why are you fighting to save your son’s life, if you say that death is a usual thing for your people?” he demands to know.

“It is a regular thing,” she says, smiling. “Life is not precious. … For us, life is nothing, not worth a thing. That is why we have so many suicide bombers. They are not afraid of death. None of us, not even the children, are afraid of death. It is natural for us. After Mohammed gets well, I will certainly want him to be a shahid. If it’s for Jerusalem, then there’s no problem. For you it is hard, I know; with us, there are cries of rejoicing and happiness when someone falls as a shahid. For us a shahid is a tremendous thing.”

Four Hamas political figures facing expulsion from Jerusalem have expressed their readiness to do almost anything to remain in the city under Israeli sovereignty, including renouncing their ties to the radical Islamist movement.

The Israeli Ministry of Interior had revoked the status of the four Hamas representatives as permanent residents of Jerusalem, paving the way for their expulsion from the city. These representatives who are fighting to retrieve their Israeli ID cards belong to the same organization whose leaders used to send young men and women to blow themselves up in Israel, killing hundreds of innocent civilians — including Arabs.

The four men – three legislators and a former minister — have good reason to put up a good fight to stay in Jerusalem. The last thing they would want is to be deported to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip or any Arab country.

To prevent their expulsion, they have even chosen to appeal to courts of the country that they do not recognize and would so much like to destroy: Israel. …

The Hamas men’s campaign is not about being allowed to stay with their families in Jerusalem — or even to spy, which the Israelis would find out — as much as fear of what awaits them under Fatah in the West Bank, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and dictatorships in the Arab world, where there is no democracy, and rule of law is capricious at best.

Once they arrive in the Gaza Strip, they will discover that their government, the Hamas government, has imposed a reign of terror and intimidation on the local population and is even confiscating much of the humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, that is being dispatched to the area.

In the West Bank, they are likely to be chased by Palestinian Authority security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad. These forces have long been waging a ruthless campaign against Hamas representatives and supporters in the West Bank.

Hundreds of Hamas followers are being held in Palestinian-run prisons without trial. Most are denied family visits and the right to consult with a lawyer. At least three Hamas detainees are believed to have died as a result of torture in the prisons controlled by Abbas and Fayyad. …

As permanent residents of Jerusalem, the four Hamas men enjoy the same rights as every Israeli citizen, with the exception of voting for the Knesset: freedom of movement; social welfare, and free education and healthcare. They can vote for the Jerusalem Municipality and travel around the country freely and without having to obtain special permission. …

They have unlimited access to Israeli hospitals and free education for their children; and are entitled to many social and economic benefits that many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip do not have.

The Hamas representatives know that in most of the Arab countries they would be dealt with as a “security threat,” and would most probably find themselves under house arrest. That is, of course, if any of those countries agrees to host them in the first place.

Now, however, the Hamas men are willing to humiliate themselves by publicly disowning the Islamist movement. If the choice is between membership in an Islamist movement and life in Israel, to the Hamas leaders, the latter option seems more attractive.

A female suicide bomber attacked a column of Shiite pilgrims on the outskirts of Baghdad on Monday, part of a convulsion of violence that has hit the capital in advance of national elections in March.

At least 41 people died and more than 100 were wounded in the attack, which took place in an industrial district on the northern edge of the city, according to initial reports from security officials, who said the toll could rise…

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites from Iraq, Iran and other countries make their way to Karbala, south of here, during a pilgrimage that marks the end of mourning for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who died in battle in the seventh century.

Many make the journey on foot, which can take days and even weeks, stopping at tents that provide food, water and shelter. They do so in defiance of almost daily attacks that have included gunfire, grenades and bombs.

The processions clog roads headed to Karbala for days ahead of the holiday, Arbaeen, which is Friday. Despite road closings and other measures to heighten security, the attacks continue as relentlessly as the marchers.

The suicide bomber in this case struck near a tent in Bob al-Sham that was filled with pilgrims making their way from Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad. The toll was one of the highest in months by an individual suicide bomber.

The bombing came a week after suicide car bombs devastated three hotels in Baghdad, followed a day later by another against a forensics lab belonging to the Interior Ministry.

The main insurgency group here, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for those attacks, which were highly coordinated and clearly intended to attack the credibility of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government.

Even as word spread of the Monday attack, a spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, which oversees security in the capital, announced that “a large number” of 134 officers and soldiers under investigation in the wake of the earlier incidents would face courts-martial for negligence and dereliction of duty.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child will apparently have full legal force in the US.

This means that American moms may not smack their kids or – O boy, will they be in for it!

But – liberals be assured – it does not forbid you to kill them if they’re born alive when you try to abort them.

And it will not stop little boys in Africa being armed with Kalashnikovs and sent into battles to kill and be killed. It will not stop the seizure or purchase of children by African and Arab slave dealers. It will not stop children being held and exploited as slaves for labour and sex. It will not save little Muslim girls from having their genitals sawn off. It will not stop the ritual killing of children as human sacrifices by certain African and Far Eastern religious cults. It will not stop Hamas from using children as human shields. And it will not stop Islamic moms and dads having their children blow up in suicide bombings.

I don’t believe Barack Obama is an idiot. Truly, I don’t. And yet, whenever he talks without a teleprompter [which now has its own blog – JB], he makes you wonder. This verbal excursion is from today’s "townhall," conducted in California before a cheering throng of, no doubt, carefully selected fans:

The same is true with AIG. It was the right thing to do to step in. Here’s the problem. It’s almost like they’ve got – they’ve got a bomb strapped to them and they’ve got their hand on the trigger. You don’t want them to blow up. But you’ve got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger.

If you’re a Democrat, maybe that reassures you that our President knows more about the economy than the average 9th grader [or more about bombs that have triggers than anyone else on earth- JB]. On the bright side, though, at least Edward Liddy knows he won’t be waterboarded!

Iraq: Al-Qaeda ‘used 24 child suicide bombers in last two years

Baghdad, 1 Oct. (AKI) – Al-Qaeda has over the past two years used 24 children to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq, the director of military operations for the Interior Ministry, Abdelaziz Mohammed Jasim, told pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat.

"Of the 24 children, five had a mental disability. From analysing the others’ remains, we established that they were homeless," said Jasim.

American soldiers stationed in Iraq have reported that the insurgency has armed children as young as 11 to fight against them.

Al-Qaeda is targeting orphans, street children and mentally disabled children as suicide bomber recruits as well as women, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

There have been at least 16 suicide attacks carried out by women in recent months in the volatile Al-Qaeda stronghold of Diyala province, north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Iraqi children (photo) in general make up 20 percent of the civilian victims of bomb attacks in the country.

Posted under Uncategorized by Jillian Becker on Thursday, October 2, 2008